Through the night
by Fluffy T. Banchuck
Summary: It was just a night security job for Gaara. Nothing more, nothing less. Or, at least it starts like that. As the night wears on and exhaustion sets in, how much of the darkness is reality and how much is all in his head. [Modern Setting, AU]


**Note:** Inspired by a phobia of mine and the game "Five nights at Freddy's" so yeah. I love horror so this was a lot of fun to write. Plus Gaara is one of my favourite characters and AU's are a lot easier to plan than sticking to canon. Enjoy xx

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><p>It was Temari's idea. That he get a job. Just a little something to help him along, pay of college bills and what not. Nothing strenuous. It was also Temari's choice of job. Again, nothing strenuous. Gaara had gone to the interview, it was a friend of the family...Apparently. It was just for the week until a more permanent employee could be found or is things worked out, Gaara was up for employment. It was simple enough. The employer (his name was Manzo) was direct about the instructions and the redhead sat patiently listening.<p>

"It's just a small job. If you don't mind working nights it's a security job, just checking cameras and such. Nothing difficult. However money is tight so we're trying to conserve as much power as we can so the lights will be off. Turn them on only if you really have too. We'll leave the office light on and leave you with a torch and plenty of batteries so that should be fine. After all you'll be sitting in the office all night."

Gaara nodded, it didn't sound too bad. He really needed to get out of his house more often, his brother and sister often told him so. Needed to socialise more. It wasn't socialising as such but it was a job. A job meant money and there was nothing wrong with that. Manzo had continued talking but the redhead had fallen into his own world for a moment so all that had been said just swept over his head.

"Anyway, any questions?" Manzo asked.

"What are the hours?" Gaara asked.

"From 10 until 6, I'd suggest coming in earlier though just to get set up and learn how to use the cameras properly," Manzo suggested.

Gaara nodded. There were a few more conditions and a contract to sign and that was that. The two men shook hands and parted ways. Truth was, Gaara was a little nervous about going to work. Not because it was a night job, he hardly ever slept a full night, or because he was alone. But mainly because it was his _first _job and, honestly, he didn't want to screw it up.

-0-

Gaara arrived outside the building at 9 at night, there were still a few lights on. Pushing open the front door, the redhead was greeted by a doe-eyed receptionist (who looked very tired) and Manzo. The man smiled at Gaara was he walked into the office but there was something slightly off about the smile, probably down to him being tired. After all the place opened at 7 in the morning. It must have been a long day.

"Thank you for doing this Gaara," Manzo said towards the teenager. "It's hard to get the staff who are willing to do night shift. Especially at such short notice."

"Oh, how come?" Gaara asked, genuinely wondering.

"Our last security quit just a few days ago, poor guy looked a wreck. Must have had some problems because he looked as though he hadn't slept in days," Manzo mused before looking to Gaara. "But don't worry about a thing. I'll meet you in the morning. Have a nice night."

Manzo left with a small wave to Gaara and the receptionist. After Manzo was out of sight and the sound of the front door closing was evident, the girl turned to Gaara looked up at him with a sleepy look.

"It's really simple," the girl said. "Different screens, different camera. Each one is labeled for each room. There are 2 floors and 8 rooms on each. There are lockable doors on the 2nd floor after the stairs, and Manzo has already taken care of that so there is no need to go upstairs. It's mostly just storage up there anyway," the way she spoke was so mechanical that it was obvious to Gaara she'd been working here a while. The whole procedure drilled into her and was easy to recite back. "The door to the office sticks sometimes so if you're needing out for any reason and it doesn't budge just shove it extra hard and it should come undone," she paused for a brief moment looking about. "I think that's about it. There is a coffee maker but Manzo probably told you we're reserving power due to bills and stuff, if you're wanting a drink I'd get it the now before the main generators are turned off for the night."

Gaara nodded. The girl, not bothering to introduce herself, smiled at the small redhead and collected up her stuff for the night. She gave Gaara a pat on the shoulder before leaving the office (giving the door a firm shove, just like she'd mentioned). Waving as she walked by the glass sliding panel, Gaara watched her leave. Then it was just him. Alone. In a single room. For the next 8 hours. Getting himself a drink from the machine, Gaara sat down in the chair and looked to the screens on the left of him. They were labeled:

_Office 1, Office 2, storage 1, office 3, staff room, office 4, storage 2, stairwell 1, stairwell 2, office 5, office 6, storage 3, storage 4, storage 5, storage 6, office 7_

Pretty generic. Taking a sip of his drink, Gaara leaned back in the chair and looked to the ceiling, there was a patch of damp in the righthand corner and the paint looked chipped and faded. In fact the whole place looked pretty run down. Maybe it explained why they could only seemingly afford one security guard, after all it wasn't exactly a small building. Sure it only had two floors but there were surprisingly a lot of rooms considering the size. Either way, it was just a job and probably a temp one at that. Leaning forward towards the desk, Gaara lay his head on his arms. This was going to be a long night.

-0-

_12 AM_

Gaara hardly noticed the main generators turning off at midnight, all he was left with was the glow of the camera screens and a single light. There was a clock ticking in the background but it was just a reminder of how slowly the night was passing. It was by no means a hard job, sitting about and occasionally looking at a computer screen was not hard. Just a little bit boring. That was all. Eventually getting stiff sitting about, Gaara stood up to stretch himself. It was then he noticed the dark patch on the camera labeled "Storage 1". This was new. Had this always been there? Maybe because the storage rooms were filled with boxes and most shadows cast were from the tiny windows, and they were square. _However _there were no windows in "Storage 1" and this shape however: _was not. _In fact it was sort of oblong and disproportionate.

Leaning closer to the screen, Gaara stared for a few moments, studying the shape before flopping back into the chair.

"_It's nothing of importance,_" the redhead thought to himself, letting his eyes flicker to other screens.

There was nothing to worry about after all he was the only person in the building. All windows to storage rooms had bars over them and every other window was locked. Besides it was probably just a plastic bag, they always ended up being weird shapes no matter what you put in them. So he pushed all thoughts of that to the side and went back to the seemingly endless night . . . Or he would have if pushing thoughts away was an easy task. Yeah, to others it might have been, but to Gaara he'd always had an inability to forget things so easily. Add that to mild paranoia and what was created was not easy living. Maybe taking a job that was built around loneliness and late nights was not such a good idea.

It was too late now though, he was there and that was that. It was just about enduring it. After all it was only for a week. Only a week. Nothing more, after all the place would probably find full time security at the end of the week. It was a very appealing job after all. Late nights. Practically complete darkness. Seemingly endless loneliness. All very pleasant job aspects. Yeah . . . no. They were not. Sitting back, Gaara composed himself. He was overthinking everything, getting worked up over nothing. It didn't matter. He was safe inside the sticky doored office on the ground floor right next to the main exit. He was surrounded by cameras. Nothing would escape his gaze. Not. A. Thing!

Looking to the screen again, the shape was still there and Gaara relaxed. For some reason he half expected it to have moved from that position. Closing his eyes for a bit longer than a standard blink before sighing and sitting back in the chair. Just had to make it through the night

-0-

_2 AM_

By the time the clock hit 2 am, Gaara was exhausted. Every once in a while he'd find his eyes drooping and his posture slumping to the side. It wasn't like he hadn't stayed up stupidly late before, everybody had. Hell he'd gone nearly a week without sleep before his family had intervened. So why was looking at computer screens so draining. Maybe that was exactly it, staring at screens was draining. Artificial lights hurt or at least they did after staring at them for a long time. Damn this was tedious. Rubbing his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that night, his eyes fell on one of the monitors. A certain "Storage 1" camera. The black shape that had been present in the room earlier was gone. Moving closer to the screen Gaara could swear that it was gone.

An easy explanation would be that the moon moved so light was being cast at a different angle however _there were no windows _in "Storage 1". It was impossible. Taking a deep breath, Gaara sighed and fished the torch out of the desk drawer and inserted the batteries. Flicking it on, the redhead was thankful to see that it cast a relatively large beam of light. Picking up a box, Gaara shoved open the office door and placed the box down to prop the door. He didn't want to get stuck outside the office all night. Looking up to hallways Gaara took some tentative steps, looking back into the office before moving onwards.

The hallways was cold and the sudden change at temperature bit a little at the teenagers skin as he had left his jacket (and his phone) back in the office. Walking along to the store room, Gaara looked behind him. For some reason his skin was crawling, he put it down to being cold but a small voice at the back of his head told him otherwise. He wasn't one to give into his minds stupid ramblings, after all most of the time they ended up being lies. Stopping in front of the storage room Gaara grasped the metal handled and pushed down, pushing the door open. Lifting the torch, the teenager scanned the room looking for whatever caused the shadow.

It was a lot smaller than it looked on camera and sure enough it was filled with overflowing boxes and bags lying haphazardly around the floor. Shaking his head, Gaara sighed. It was just exhaustion playing with his mind because shadows didn't move. It was absurd and stupid. So why did he feel so ill at ease. He knew it was all in his head and that nothing was going on so why did he feel . . . afraid almost. It felt almost cliché to be jumping at shadows. It wasn't a movie. He was safe and alone. Sighing Gaara went shut the door but after doing so felt an odd urge not to turn around. Like he was afraid what was going to be behind him. Swallowing this feeling, the redhead turned and was greeted with the empty and dark corridor only illuminated by the torch light.

"_I need to relax_" Gaara thought as he headed back to the office.

-0-

_4AM_

Two hours more.

Two hours more.

Two. Hours. More. That was what Gaara had been telling himself ever since the clock hit 4AM, even since the numbers on his phone slipped by. It was only two more hours until he could go home and sleep. He was _exhausted _and that was putting it lightly. At first thinking that watching screens was an easy job, Gaara had been proved wrong. He had very good observational skills, when he was fully awake. But at night those skills slipped. His eyes and mind deceived him. Seeing things that weren't there was only a small part of it. He stared fervently at the screens, as though not wanting to miss a single detail. As if something would happen if he didn't. Chewing a little at his fingernails, Gaara needed to make this through. Make it through the night.

Then he saw it. A dark figure on the second set of stairs. Sitting in the middle. A chill rolled down the teenagers spine. There was no mistaking this for a bag or a box. Those stairs were empty. Until he started looking at them. Breathing deeply, Gaara looked to the torch on his desk. It was his job to go and check anything that looked out of place. Keep the building safe. So why was he so _afraid. _It was exhaustion! Yes, that was it. A lack of sleep and strained eyes from looking at monitors all night. That was it. If he just ignored it, it would go away. Forget about it. Forget about it. Forget . . .

He was up, the torch was in his hand and haggard green eyes searched in the darkness for the stairs entrance. He lifted a hand to the door handle and . . . and what was he doing? Balling up his fist Gaara went to turn away when another chill ran up the length of his spine and planted itself at the back of his head. It felt as though something was holding him in place, welding him in place. Catching him in an icy grip. He couldn't move, he couldn't think. All he knew was that he could feel something _watching_ him. Shallow breaths came in short gasps. He wasn't facing the door, he had turned away. He was walking walking, down the hall. Not looking back. Not even daring.

The walk quickly turned into a run as he sprinted down the corridor, still the feeling of something gripping at him, holding him in its icy grip. Skidding to a sudden stop, the torch tumbled to the floor with an echous 'thump'. Gaara stopped and slowly reach down to the floor, eyes still fixated on the office door in front of him. Picking up the cold metal in his hand, the redhead slowly reached up and grab the handle to the office and gave it a tug. Once . . . Twice . . . Three times.

It didn't budge.

Green eyes grew wide as Gaara frantically attempted to get the door open. He could feel it coming, whatever _it _was! It was coming, in a fluid motion, sliding down the corridor, endless dark tendrils reaching out ready to grab him and. .

The door opened. Gaara fell into the office, torch rolling along the floor as he kicked the door shut with a loud 'bang'. Lying back on the floor, the redhead sighed. He didn't even look in the direction of the monitors.

-0-

_6AM_

He hardly noticed when Manzo came in the following morning. He hardly registered the light filtering in through the windows and doors. He was just so tired, he wanted to go home, to sleep and to forget about the night.

"See you again tonight?" Manzo asked doubtfully.

"Maybe," Gaara replied.

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><p><strong>Note: <strong>So yes, I'm sorry if it's shit and you hate it! But if you don't and you want to see more, tell me. Tell me if:

1) Gaara should quit at the end of night 2

2) Continue onto night 3

3) Get killed during night 2

Input will breed this story. So yes, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it and hope to see you again xx


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